Established by Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed, SmartCrowd is set to be a revolutionary offering.
Since the pandemic, SmartCrowd, Dubai’s state-of-the-art real estate crowdfunding platform, which allows individual investors to buy a fractional share in a rental property, has grown its stakeholder base nearly six times. The investor base has profoundly grown 100 percent on a Q-o-Q basis.
SmartCrowd now has more than 30,000 users on the platform, 80 percent of which are UAE-based after 18 months of solid growth, despite the global economic distress induced by the pandemic.
The remaining 20 percent comprise users from as far away as New Zealand and Australia and are using SmartCrowd to take a beneficial slice of Dubai’s real estate market.
SmartCrowd has now sponsored more than 70 properties and transacted over AED50 million. The CEO of SmartCrowd, Farid stated, that the company has paid out close to AED3 million in rental income to investors so far.
With investments on the crowdfunding platform starting at AED500, explaining the concept, the CEO said individual investors in SmartCrowd take a fractional share in a vetted rental property based on a 100-point proprietary screening tool.
He added that the investors will then receive a share of rent proportional to their investment. After funding, a property is purchased through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) registered in the DIFC, ensuring a secure, safe investment opportunity for buyers.
Farid further added that SmartCrowd was the ideal platform for investors seeking a good return on their investment.
SmartCrowd closes USD3 million bridge fund
The Dubai group recently closed a bridge fund approximately in excess of USD3 million. The bridge funding will aid the rapidly growing company to scale in its operations, and products as well as establishing a well-built presence in new markets including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
An influential Saudi firm Mad’a Investment Company is the lead investor of the Bridge Round, while Dubai-based TriCap Investment made a follow-up investment in SmartCrowd and was followed by Amaana Capital, the venture capital arm of US-based NRD Capital along with other prominent angel investors in the region.
Noting the growth, Mad’a Investment CEO Abdullah A. Al Othaim was quoted saying that SmartCrowd, MENA’s first regulated real estate investment platform, will open up new investment channels to individuals looking for relatively safe methods to earn passive income as part of their strategy to invest in companies that add exceptional value through their innovative ideas to the kingdom and the region.
According to a statement, Managing Partner at Amaana Capital, Aziz Hashim, said that SmartCrowd was leading the way in fractional real estate ownership in the region, by providing customers with high-quality and pre-verified investment opportunities. He also said that the company was excited to partner with SmartCrowd in their next phase of growth.
Suleman Soorani, Director of Principal Investments at Tricap Investments, remarked that Smart Crowd’s user-friendly technology platform has made real estate investment accessible and hassle-free for all.
He added that the company is excited to support the founders in making Smart Crowd not just a preferred way of investing in real estate but a preferred way of owning real estate.
Assets under management have increased more than 60 percent quarter-on-quarter, while the number of investors has doubled in the last quarter.
Farid further added that the rapid growth experienced by the company was due to its innovative approach to property ownership in a market that is ripe for investment, in addition to the strong economic transformation the UAE was experiencing in the sector. He noted that real estate transactions in Dubai were at a record high, paving the way for the company’s growth.
In addition to this, Farid mentioned that the latest bridge funding secured by the company will assist the company in its effort to scale new heights and continues its mission to make alternative investment widely accessible to the masses.
